Agree with the Roy Batty quote from Blade Runner.
Frank Herbert’s Dune, when Count Fenring refuses to kill Pau Muad’Dib.
Aiken Drum’s “change of costume” and his burning of the Firvulag in the Adversary, the final book in the Many Coloured Land quartet.
The opening sequence to The Fifth Element, with the trapped gauntletted hand clutching the key.
The scene from the short story The Bully And The Crazy Boy, where the human fleet fights an all or nothing battle against aliens who wish to conquer and enslave us. The aliens have better technology and may even be more intelligent - but humans have the advantage of being irrational, by their standards. They’d have given up and surrendered into slavery - not do things like surrender a space station, let occupation troops board and then blow it up. Or, in the case of the last battle, lure the alien fleet in, then send in suicide ships at a third of the speed of light, all targeted on the same spot, in a converging sphere all timed to arrive at the same instant. One VERY impressive explosion later, both fleets are dead from the released radiation.
Except for the command ship, which realized what was happening in time to evade at high gravity acceleration - which is when the captured human Admiral bites down on a tooth filled with berserker drug, escapes his restraints, disables or kills his guards and the alien commander, and ignoring his fatal wounds under the drug heads for the fusion room. “And soon, the fury of unchained atoms conquered all”.
The duel between Honor Harrington and Denver Summervale in Field of Dishonor.
No, no, no.
Watching the reaction of Pavel Young, Earl North Hollow, as he remembers the duel between Honor Harrington and Denver Summervale.
I should be ashamed of how much I love that scene. I should be.
Nobody’s mentioned the end of Asimov’s Nightfall yet? Hmm.
More votes for: the jump-cut from bone to space station in 2001; the Krell power plant.
Also the end of Forbidden Planet where all of the meters begin lighting up.
The sunrise as seen from space at opening of 2001 also gives me chills. The music from Also Sprach Zarathustra accompanying it is a big part of that.
This is probably not remotely good science fiction, but the secen in Kushiel’s Avatar when Phedre banishes the angel Rahab.
The build-up to and use of the alien device in Contact
“I’m good to go!”
A few more from Heinlein:
The ‘Stobor’ attack in Tunnel in the Sky. Also the scene where the gate opens again and Rod is thrust back into adolescence. “I can’t stand it!”
“The Tale of the Adopted Daughter” in Time Enough for Love. Especially the final couple of scenes of the story.
The opening attack on the Skinnies in Starship Troopers: “I’m a ten second bomb! I’m a nine second bomb!”
Several great scenes from Have Space Suit - Will Travel - The treks on the moon and on Pluto, the moment when Kip looks up and realizes he’s no longer in his own galaxy, the speech near the end.
So many more…
This is vaguely remembered since it’s been a while, but it’s from A Deepness In the Sky by Vernor Vinge, where humans come into contact with a race of spider-like sentients. Both civilizations constantly have to struggle to overcome the instinctive revulsion they feel for the other’s appearance. There’s a scene where a human is talking to a Spider, and suddenly realizes the Spider is crying. That broke my heart, and I’m an arachnophobe.
I liked the ending to it’s sequel, A Fire Upon the Deep, where the galaxy wide AI is wiped out along with a myriad of other technological civilisations, and then the contrast with the new way of life on the planet of the Tines.
The whole damn sequence when contact is first made sends shivers down my spine.
I will add my vote for damn near anything Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle writes.
The buildup, final battle and it’s conclusion in Footfall, for me, defines awesome
Heh. I came in just to mention that.
Also, pretty much all of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun qualifies as Awesome.
RR
Awsome moment?
How about the “volcano” erupting in Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise.
God I love that book.
I always liked it where Capt. Nemo gives Prof. Aronax a view of the Nautilus’ nuclear reactor (in the 1953 film “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”).
That was cool!
Deepness is the sequel to Fire.
As for Contact, “First rule of government spending: Why build one when you can build two for twice the price. They still want an American to go, Doctor. Want to take a ride?” That whole scene is wonderful.
The thing I loved about that movies was when it won the Hugo at Chicon 2000. David Howard was there and was really psyched to win the Hugo for the movie.
I couldn’t think how to phrase it, Fire was written first, but takes place after Deepness.
We first see the evil alien slither out of its place of concealment in The Hidden.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. :: shudder ::
Sprequel?
geeksnort